Marijuana Blog

On August 1st two more medical marijuana dispensaries in San Francisco, California will shut down, which means there will be less dispensaries in the city than there was 10 years ago.

Vapor Room and HopeNet both have to close down by the end of the month, as their landlords received letters from U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag in April threatening them with jail time if they didn’t throw the dispensaries out.

While the Vapor Room hasn’t said yet what they plan to do, the folks at HopeNet are planning on going delivery-only on August 1st.

San Francisco began licensing and regulating medical cannabis dispensaries in 2005, after CA SB 420 passed in 2003, allowing storefront dispensaries in the state.

At that time (2005) there were over 40 dispensaries operating in the city, but city regulations and now the federal crackdown has reduced that number to less than 20.

Coming on the heels of the federal threats against Harborside Health Center in Oakland and San Jose, these new closures further decimate the already shrinking medical marijuana access in the bay area.

Which means patients are being affected. And since the federal government says they are not going after patients, something is off. Are we being lied to?

Would anyone be surprised if we were being lied to? Would anyone be surprised if those in power didn’t care how many patients were hurt?

Let’s say there is a thriving retirement community and there is only one pharmacy within 5 miles. Then suddenly that pharmacy is forced to close. What happens to those who frequented this pharmacy?

Their medicine supply is restricted. Under what circumstances besides great scarcity is it okay to restrict the medical supply?

Medical marijuana is not scarce. Common sense and compassion however, are in short supply.